The Dust Of Our Hours
by Kifujin Kitade
Summary: Kougami starts his new job as a prince's bodyguard. KouMaki and hints of KouGino
1. Don't ruin a good day

Hell~o KouMaki lovers! This is the second story i write for this pairing. I'm not used enough to this but I'll do my best starting from now...

I've nothing to say but this: ENJOY!

* * *

Dust of our hours

It was a chilly day of fall. Trees were blazing with red and orange, the cobblestone streets tinged with dead leaves, the sky up there cloudy and inhospitable. People were already muffling up in cloaks and furs, even if night hadn't fallen yet. In spite of the bad weather since last week, the citizens didn't lose heart in strolling in the merry boulevards, bringing with them family, friends or lovers, laughing and talking loudly in little groups or sitting calmly on wooden benches like those old couples, only looking at the passer-bys and whispering in the significant other's ear.

Kougami looked at all that little world from the cab, chin resting on his wrist. He sighed.

"You know, Gino. I'm sure there're better things to do today than visiting that gloomy place."

A young and handsome man sitting in front of him, wearing eyeglasses and a dark suit, put back a pile of letters he was reading and frowned.

"Should I remind you that that _gloomy place_ you're talking about is the royal castle, and also that now on it's where you're going to work?"

"As a bodyguard!" Shinya retorted, at the same time leaning on the seat's back, arms crossed behind his head. "A bodyguard! Can you even call that a job? Sticking with some important officials all day _and_ all night long! I really am jealous of you now."

"Stop whining. You're always so childish… A job is a job. Just what's the difference between working in secret services and protecting the royal family?"

While talking, Gino adjusted his eyeglasses on his nose bridge. The trepidation of the pram was making them slipping down. Kougami smiled. He quite liked the way his lover would always worry about hiding his eyes. The raven haired man knew perfectly he had no special eyesight problem, so he assumed that was shyness that made him wear the glasses. That was a shame, thought, since Gino had the most beautiful emerald orbs he'd ever seen.

"Aye, aye. I got it."

Kougami capitulated. He didn't want to start a new fight with Gino, since that was certainly the last time he would see the bespectacled man before long. He already regretted talking about the latter's father three days ago, though he was totally aware of the quarrel between the son and the old man. At least it taught him not to poke his nose in people's familial problems. But Gino had been somehow avoiding him since that. Kougami's nights had been lonely without him, he thought bitterly.

A neigh and the sound of a salute announced that the coach arrived at the castle. Kougami got out.

"You're not supposed to introduce me?" He asked at his friend who hadn't moved from his seat, constantly frowning unkindly at him.

"I won't have to. They've your name, they know your face, and you're not a kid anymore. You'll find your way."

"Eh?"

"I'm busy and I have no time to lose with you!" He almost screamed while shutting the pram's portiere close. So he still was angry about that fight…

"Wait, Gino! I'm sorry for what happened, but don't just…"

Kougami's words went into deaf ears. He didn't even made it to the end of his pleads when the car moved off. When the Inspector lost sight of the cab, he exhaled heavily. It sure wasn't going to be a good day for him.

* * *

The hallway he was in was gigantic, in all aspects: an excessively high ceiling, huge portraits of previous Kings and their descent hanging on the walls, and wide picture windows framed by long curtains letting the sunlight in. It was making the tiled ground and the armors lined up against the wall glisten proudly. As Gino said, he entered easily in the palace. Nonetheless it was once he was in that some problems occurred.

First, the castle was immense. Unless one had lived there for their entire life, it was practically impossible to find their way in. After almost one hour going round and round in the countless corridors, going up and down hellish stairs and entering the wrong rooms, the dark haired man finally found someone to tell him his way. The valet who was standing sentry before a massive door didn't even blink when he saw a stranger coming near him. He just asked, with a self-confident air and after asking his name, who Kougami was looking for.

"Kougami Shinya, Inspector at the Public Safety Bureau's first division. Starting from now I'm assigned to the personal protection of the King and his relatives."

"Wait here, please."

The page left him to disappear at the corner of the hall. Right after he was replaced with another who contented himself with staring stupidly at the hall in front of him. Ten minutes passed, then thirty, forty… One hour later the first valet still hadn't come back, and Shinya was starting to lose patience. He tried to convince the second footman to go and look for someone who could be somehow up-to-date with the stuff happening in the palace. However the valet was keeping himself from helping the dark haired man in any way possible. At last Kougami was on the point of yelling at him when the first domestic appeared, all panting and sweating.

"Sorry for making you wait, sir." He was almost suffocating under his uniform. "But I've looked for the stewards, they've looked for the butlers who went searching for the prince… I think they're still searching for him…'

"All right! So I've been waiting here for nothing?!" Kougami facepalmed.

"No… I'm sure they'll find him soon. Since he's the only member of the royal family present now, we can't help but…"

"Okay, I got it! I'll go to look for him by myself. At least I won't have to stay here any longer…"

And saying that Kougami turned tail and left the corridor. The castle was truly a labyrinth. As he didn't want to lose more of his time trying to find his way in, instead of getting lost for the nth time, the Inspector got out in the garden.

It was in no doubt a pretty garden, immense and well kept. The flower beds were tidy and meticulously organized, hedges and hedges of cypress were spreading on the horizon; there were colorful rosebushes climbing on the palace's walls, circling the windows and colossal oaks bordering the alleys.

Something was tickling Kougami's curiosity; that was the incessant clamor and coming and going of domestics in livery all over the garden. So that was where everyone had been all that time… They were running everywhere, everyone carrying plates, drapes, chairs or odder devices with them, and pushing him on their way as if they didn't notice his presence at all. He tried to ask someone what was happening, but that's precisely where the problem was laying: he was purely ignored. They didn't even give the impression of being surprised by the presence of a total stranger within the royal's walls.

As a result the outside was a no-no too.

Kougami went back inside. As expected, the palace was totally empty; he didn't meet a living soul. At least that was better than the outside's mess.

The Inspector paced again through the numerous hallways. It was amazing to see that, even after losing his morning in the gigantic place, there still were some rooms he didn't know. Finally he entered into a vast, imposing library. Lines and lines of books, so many it would be a waste of time to count them. After crossing a full range of them Kougami settled on taking a volume of Swift and sat next to a window. That was a quite boring pastime, but he could put up with it.

He read the first lines. The cynicism, bitterness and the never-ending peregrinations were caustic and derisive. Kougami never got himself to understand how people could let their children read that man's work. Minutes later he put the book back, stretched his arms and yawned.

"Well. I guess I have to go back." Kougami sight and got up, but started when he heard something like a breath, a whisper… or more exactly a very light laugh.

The Inspector paused and looked for where the laugh had come from. However the library was unbelievably vast, there were even upstairs levels built like balconies girdling the walls; it would take hours only to…

"Is someone else there?" Kougami asked out loud. Yes, most of time, the simplest way was the best.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking that?" A voice from the first stair resounded. A man half raised from behind a pile of books.

At first sight Shinya noticed he wasn't older than him, maybe in his mid twenties. He had soft, white hair which contrasted his young features, falling on narrow shoulders, and golden slit eyes. The man was wearing casual clothes – only a white shirt and austere pants – but his appearance was too much nonchalant and free, looking down at him from his spot, to mistake him for a simple employee… Or, if that was the case, then he was the most terrible employee someone would wish for.

"It's the first time I see you here. I thought security would be a little more severe in here." The white haired man was lying right on the floor, his head resting on his right hand, and looked intently into Kougami's obsidian eyes. The latter didn't avert his gaze. There was something really strange in that man's stare; it was cutting and heavy, like the look of a scientist on some unknown animal: as if he was trying to dissect his deepest secrets with his eyes only... And in the same time they were somewhere else, lost and cold. "What are you reading?"

The stranger took Kougami aback with that sudden question, but he still answered. "Gulliver's travels. But I'm leaving now; I have to find someone to tell me what the hell's happening in here."

"Mmh? Oh, you're talking about that muddle?" The young man shrugged and smiled. "They're preparing tonight's festivities. It's going to be a nice party, they said. You should attend it."

"Festivities? Not interested. By the way, can you tell me if the prince is still in the castle? They've looked for him throughout the day, without success. I'm supposed to work for him as of today."

"Are you possibly… his new bodyguard?" The young man smirked. His eyes shined with a sarcasm which hadn't gone unnoticed by the Inspector. He frowned.

"Yeah… Anyway, where is he?"

"You'll find him tonight. After all, it's the night we'll welcome the daughter of the Realm of P…'s King for her engagement with the dauphin."

"So that's the reason of the ruckus… Now then I'll take leave."

"You're leaving already? When I thought you would divert me for some time."

"Hey, do I look like a clown? Just go back to what you were doing before me coming here."

"I was through it." The second retorted and, while putting back a book on the pile, he sat up. "So what about keeping me company?"

Kougami sighed. He really didn't want a total stranger to tell that kind of things to him. Perhaps from an attractive man with stunning emerald eyes, but not from a creepy guy he just found behind stacks of paper.

"I don't want to. Why should I lose my time with a weirdo anyway?"

"Humph." The white haired man leaned on a bookcase. "What would you do in this castle anyway? It must be chaos, outside. Unless you want to take part of it or have a peculiar liking for crockery or…"

Kougami got out.

* * *

Night finally fell on the castle.

Kougami had to admit it: the entire place had been decorated with the finest taste, adorned with luxurious drapes, tables furnished with opulent drinks and dishes, the gardens even more embellished with garlands and lanterns. The party wasn't confined inside. People dressed in the most beautiful attires were pacing peacefully in and out of the castle, the dancing room opening widely to the fresh air and the starry sky. Everything was glowing with luxury, the chandeliers on the ceiling reflecting frivolously on the tiled floor. Rich guests were dancing, wandering, strolling arm in arm between marble columns, showing off and amusing themselves. In spite of the dark night, it still was easy to stroll among the spinney and the garden of roses, since even if the weather was cold and windy, an ingenious proceeding kept the candles lit, enlightening every pathway, every corner of the garden.

The Inspector was looking for a place to have a smoke. He had been walking in the compact crowd for hours, constantly bumping into nameless aristocrats or waiters in a hurry. There were too many people; it was giving a headache even to try to recognize any of them. At last the dark haired man found a rather quiet place sheltered from the noise by an equestrian statue. He heaved a sigh of relief when the stick finally lit up, taking a deep breath of nicotine then releasing a greyish cloud before his eyes. Sitting down he listened to a light melody played by an orchestra lost somewhere in the luxuriant flora.

A couple passed behind the sculpture. What the man told drew Kougami's attention.

"I heard the princess' cortege was already in town." The man said. "It's going to be the most spectacular display, if you want my opinion. The whole nobility of P… is following her!"

"Dear, I won't miss that!" The woman snickered. "People keep on saying she's an angel. Humph! Pure exaggeration."

"My, my."

"Oh, isn't that the convoy already, what I hear from the portal?"

She was right. Pawing could be heard from the gate. Immediately the entire castle went to welcome the princess and her suite, while Kougami indifferently stood up, not leaving his position.

The aristocratic household instantly deduced that the infant was in the first and most sumptuous carriage. That was true. After the ostlers left the magnificent coach, a pair of valets approached the portiere. After the first opened it, the second gave his hand to the very young and charming lady who came out. The woman (though she was almost a girl) had short brown hair and big brown eyes. She was small and skinny, but her gaze was already mature and determined. The robe she wore was magnificently gleaming and the jewels on her wrist, neck and hair were the most veracious proves of her kingdom's wealth. She had been straightaway followed by a line of P…'s nobility, every one more beautiful and wonderfully dressed than the previous one.

"What a beautiful girl!" Some whispered. "A delightful woman." Others muttered.

"But a little too young, don't you think? Will that frail body even be able to bear the throne's inheritor?"

"Be quiet! Can't you see the cortege behind her?"

"The all Realm of P…, isn't it?"

"She must have some protectors within them. If someone hears even a single bad critic…"

"Ah! Ah! Ah!"

Kougami was listening to the gossip with a pang of disgust in his stomach. The problem was that although he didn't want to, he had nowhere else to go, and the rumormongers were all over the place. Finally the Inspector went away, though the gossip didn't stop, even after he left his hiding-place. He was elbowing people out of his way, unsure of where he was going exactly, when a violent wave of onlookers rushing to the gate pushed him violently and made him curse. This time he was trapped in the middle of the crowd and their repetitive tittle-tattle.

"Look! That's the prince!" Someone suddenly exclaimed.

"The prince!" Others echoed. "Where is he? It's him! It's him!"

Gradually silence fell on the castle then both men and women bowed respectfully, the general gesture directed to a man Kougami would have never seen if the heads in front of him hadn't lowered. He directly spotted the white, feathery hair, the narrow shoulders and the nonchalant manner, he almost dropped his cigarette.

"No. Wait." He mumbled and pinched the bridge of his nose with annoyance. "When I think about it, it isn't that extraordinary…"

The prince was that weird guy he met in the library.

* * *

Lack of gimmick, I know... Next chapter will be up soon. Rreview please to point where i did something wrong! ^^


	2. If birds could talk

I have no excuse...

With any further ado, the second chapter of TDOOH.

Enjoy!

* * *

We're in 184… in the great Empire of E… The previous Emperor, her Majesty Evrard just died during his 37th year of reign, leaving the country with four children: three daughters and a son, too young to be placed on the throne. A regency had to be named to lead the Empire until the majority of the male inheritor.

Though the kid hadn't been the only potential successor; the heir of an allied kingdom and the first daughter's husband was also a candidate, but the regency would never allow a man from another bloodline to lead the Empire. Touma (that was his name) was rejected with no more explanation. No need to say that that action irremediably affected the relation between the two countries. Reprisals were sworn to be taken, the first princess almost repudiated, and in spite of everything the Empire (more exactly the Regency) didn't even blink.

However the horror they knew when they understood that Shogo would never become tenth as brilliant as his father, the horror they knew was nameless. When he was younger, they thought that his strange personality would change with time. But when he got in his mid-twenties, one had to admit that Shogo's odd behaving – his constantly isolating from the others and most particularly his obvious loathing to anything related to the crown – had nothing to do anymore with youth's fatuousness.

But what was truly feared was the fact that a weak chief was giving an aura of weakness to the entire country. They had to remediate to that, by all means. So, they thought, what can give back to a kingdom its credit and splendor? That is, a strong alliance through marriage, and, why not, a new male inheritor at the end of all this. Shogo was a lost cause, a flaw. They had to rebuild the Empire's strength with a new leader, one that would easily let himself being modeled as their figurehead. War was also a solution, but too much expensive, and the people was starting to show discontent seeing their taxes raising every month.

The recent truce with the realm of P… gave them the best opportunity to get rid of their burden by giving him a princess to marry. The preparative was done the fastest possible, all the paperwork and _discutaillerie_ expedited in one week – so fast that the princess herself didn't even have her word to say.

Anyway, what would have she said? The Realm of P… was poor, that didn't matter. The Empire was rich. So rich they didn't know anymore what to do with their fortunes. The Realm's people didn't accept that alliance imposed to them with an enemy country. That didn't matter. The Empire had an army to suppress thousands of insurrections, if any. And on top of everything, they were putting an end to the skirmishes that had persisted for almost fifteen years at the north frontier.

"So technically it's a win-win deal, isn't it?" Makishima concluded his peroration, a kind and false smile stretching his thin lips while waving a hand to the populace waiting for them in the streets and on their houses' balcony. Akane, who was sitting next to him in the luxurious coach, didn't rise her eyes once, nor to her fiancé, nor to the crowd which was calling happily at her name, perfectly still since the ride began. Right from the start, Kougami (he had been sitting on the front bench the whole time, his back facing the young couple) knew she would do so. All she did was to crease her dress and frown.

"And we can't help it. It is and will always be the same for us. We will have people to tell us what to do, what to say, how to behave with other people and even within ourselves. We were born only for that purpose, to serve the behoof of the kingdom."

"If you don't like it why don't you just quit it?" Shinya asked frankly. "You're a prince, once, and moreover an adult. Stop whining for such futilities and do something of your life."

Shogo stopped smiling and sighed. "You're talking just like the old men that had raised me, that's boring. And is there really nothing else to but this?" The white haired man emphasized his thought by smiling fondly at two kids who just called his name. "I'd rather stay in the castle and read something."

"This has nothing to do with me so don't complain." Kougami retorted. "It's only half of today's schedule. Tonight we also have a welcome party ("Another one" Makishima muttered) for all the foreign notables who are going to be present at the wedding."

Makishima Shogo sighed deeper, this time with a sad expression – at least _his_ kind of sad expression, one more akin to condescension. "We've just had a party yesterday. How long are we planning on spending the taxpayer's money in useless protocol?"

"Well, at least two weeks. Your family kind of have a taste in display."

"No wonder why some people hate upper classes. Oh, my. Is the Inspector one of them?" Makishima smirked in that special way that could draw tickling in Kougami's fists.

"Unfortunately no. I prefer keep my head on my shoulders, if possible."

"That's a pretty sensible answer."

"Good. Now here you are." Shinya held a thin, bind book out to the white haired prince. The latter, after reading quickly the content, sent an inquiring glance to the dark haired man.

"What _is_ that?"

"Just a list of people who are attending tonight's festivity."

"And what am I supposed to do with that?"

"Isn't that obvious? Remember their names." Shogo frowned seriously. Kougami didn't pay much attention to it. "Learn their names by heart by tonight. You should at least be able to recognize who is congratulating you for the next two weeks."

"Oh."

That task didn't seem to delight the prince, not because he couldn't do it – something as trivial was nothing for him – but precisely because he would have to use his brain cells for such a trivial chore.

"This is utterly futile."

"Isn't it. Now give it your best."

The coach's speed rose a little, leaving the applauding and loud crowd behind. That day's popular show was over.

* * *

Parties at the court were always boring, tiresome, vain and again, boring. Shogo had to show up at them since the day he's been conscious of his surroundings – many, many years ago, an eternity, it seemed. That was and would always be the same pattern: come in by this door, don't frown at the light in the ball room, smile gently and wave a hand at the aristocrats, move slowly, don't rush, never break eye-contact with those who are lower than you, go down the stairs (because, for his entry, they always place him higher that his inferiors), go down the stairs separating you from them and their hypocritical lies and their sickly sweet perfumes. Now bear it. You can always say, after saluting the whole mass of vampires, that you're not feeling well, and go back to your room.

Still, after four hours of entertaining the presumptuous cattle, Shogo's eyes are starting to tickle. He has an irrepressible desire to yawn and go to sleep, but he isn't allowed to leave his podium. His case reminds him of one of a criminal waiting for the gibbet's rope to tighten, deadly, on his throat: an entire village of bumpkins is watching at him, of course he can make no move but just wait, wait, wait.

He can remember it: back then, he was eight. Years later, nothing in particular did actually changed; so Makishima was pondering in the bathtub of his gigantic, personal bathroom. His head was half hidden in the water, only the snowy mane and two pallid knees showing up. The young man liked the time he was losing leisurely in that room made of gold and silver, doing nothing but paddling in the foam and the giant bubbles, thinking idly about things and others. There he had to please no one… Until someone knocked on the door.

Shogo scowled a bit, but finally sat up, his movements causing wrinkles in the hot water, first because of his emerging, second because of the little drop of water falling from his skinny torso and dampened hair. He was half out of the water, but however said nothing. Another knock, more brutal, resounded.

"Come in." Makishima said casually while brushing his hair back.

"How long are you going to stay here?" Shinya burst the door open and strolled boldly in the bathroom. At his authoritarian tone, the white haired man easily guessed that the dark haired man was angry. Very angry.

"Why are you asking-"

"It's been two hours!"

"So what's the matter?" He leaned on the edge. "The party isn't beginning before ten. There's still plenty time."

And he didn't want to get out of the water. The air was cold on his wet skin and his hair kept on sticking on his face. Shogo brushed his bangs aside. It didn't seem to excessively bother him to have the Inspector so close to him when he was fully naked in the water.

"That's not the point. I've been waiting outside for two damn hours!" Kougami burst.

"I told you to wait here with me. You're the one who insisted on staying out." Makishima smiled brightly. " 'I can resist anything but temptation', am I wrong?"

To that, Kougami only glowered and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Anyway you should get out now and ask for-… Makishima!"

Said man was gone back under the water. Kougami's words fell into deaf ears, and the Inspector didn't like it at all.

"Makishima, get out from there!" Shinya leant on the tub before yelling at Shogo (who, obviously, could hear nothing of it). "I'm fed up of enduring your whims, damn it! I'm your goddamn bodyguard, not your hellish babysitter!"

_Splash_.

That was the sound of the foaming water splashing on Kougami's face. The sound of the water Makishima splashed on Kougami's face.

"_What the hell_?"

Makishima half emerged his head from the tub, enough to see the Inspector's fuming at him, hair and shirt soaked wet. He bubbled. It had the result to anger the dark haired man even more.

"At least if you want to laugh at me, don't hide in the water."

Shogo arose with his usual grin. "This is called teaching patience."

"How?"

"In the fastest way. And it's funny, too. Now if you have no more complaint…" He silenced and eyed at Shinya's hand.

"What? Something's wrong?" The latter asked when he saw the white haired man quieten.

"What's in your hand?" Makishima kept on staring at the Inspector's hand. Actually, Kougami was holding a small white box.

"Oh, this? A girl gave it to me earlier. She said I'd need them until you're over with your bath."

In the box, there were chocolates; many succulent, rich assortments of it.

"Can you give me one?" Shogo pointed at the box. Kougami held it out to him, though Makishima didn't take the packet. He just stared at the dark haired man as if he didn't understand what the Inspector was expecting from him.

"Now _what_?" Shinya had no more patience left. That man was driving him crazy, he was clearly on the verge of a nervous breakdown. To his question, Shogo answered by closing his eyes and opening slightly his mouth. "Hey, you must be kidding me." Shinya cursed in his inner self, but at last complied and sat on the edge of the bathtub. "I can't believe I'm really doing this. You better get out after that."

"M-mh." Shogo agreed and waited for Shinya to put the snail-like chocolate on his tongue. It tasted sweet and a bit salty in the end, maybe because of the butter in its core, Makishima pondered. The candy quickly melted in his mouth; too quickly, he thought. The white haired man opened his eyes and smiled at Kougami. "Another one-"

"Get lost."

* * *

"I told you that it would be boring, deadly boring." Shogo sipped at a cup of wine. Leaning on a marble column in a remote corner, Kougami standing beside him, he was watching at the party attenders. They seemed to pretty enjoy themselves. Shinya yawned.

"It could have been worse." The dark haired man said with a bored expression. Unlike Makishima he wasn't trying to hide his boredom. "At least you only have to watch."

The prince glimpsed at few groups of men practically glaring at him, some placidly, some more dangerously. "I'd rather leave now. It gives an awful stench, of conspiracy and betrayal."

"Let the dogs bark after the carriage. I'm here for that purpose, aren't I?"

Shogo smiled happily at him. "I'm thankful for this."

The dark haired man scowled. "Tsk. I need a smoke."

Makishima laughed lightly, one hand covering his graceful lips. He was starting to appreciate being with Kougami. When they first told him about his new bodyguard, he accepted it coldly. Since his childhood, he already had many of them. Younger, he clearly remembered walking in a long, white corridor with two guards in front of him. Shogo couldn't recall their faces; for him, they were just two dark pillars constantly standing by his sides, quiet, shadowy, threatening pillars which he would never get rid of. Someone or another, it would change nothing.

Kougami Shinya was different. He was putting so little effort hiding his antipathy toward his job and the prince that it was almost comic. Talking with him was fun; or more exactly, teasing him was.

"In any case shouldn't you be with your wife?" He asked out of the blue.

"We're not married yet. She's not my wife." There was some kind of firmness in Makishima's voice when he said that. As if he just spoke an unchangeable truth.

Kougami shrugged. "It comes to the same thing."

"However, it's quite sad. I can sympathize with her fate." Kougami questioningly rose an eyebrow. "There's something fairly strange I noticed about human beings. Men, after one life of killing, robbing, thieving, destroying and wrecking, are brought to the prison you call justice only after weeks, months, sometimes years of manhunt, chasing and tracking down. On the contrary, women are surrendering docilely, most of time without even rising their voice, and quickly, just like tamed circus beasts, to their own prison, whether it's called the housewife life or the cloister."

"Are you talking seriously?" There was a hint of mockery in Kougami's voice. "Aren't you in the same case as her? It's even worse since you're a man."

"That's hurtful."

Kougami heaved a sigh, one with more annoyance than before. "Okay. It's getting really irritating. Hey, Makishima" This is something he liked too, Kougami's outspokenness. "Let's get out."

Shogo accepted that half-order, half-request appreciatively. They both crossed the thick and swarming crowd, the white haired man on the lead. Smiles and bows were met on his way, ladies with their suggestive looks, lords with their withered praises. The prince took a deep breath when they finally reached the flower garden. He shivered a little when a chilly wind made contact with his neck, where wet locks still were sticking on. He traversed a wooden patio crawling with copses, flowerbeds and plaster sculptures. He sat on a bench opposite a huge fountain. Next to him the Inspector lit up a cigarette. Soon a soft and bitter scent of nicotine was invading the air. 'Kougami's scent.' Shogo processed.

"Ah." The Inspector suddenly said. "You don't mind?" He showed the stick between his lips.

Shogo made a move with his right hand (the other was sustaining his weight on the bench's armchair), as to say 'Please do' before crossing his legs. "So this is the first time you're attending a high society gathering, isn't this? Your impression?"

"Nothing in particular. I'd say I'm not the kind of man to reason starting from clichés, but yet I have to admit it. Noblemen party is the worst kind of torture one can chose to inflict to themselves.

"Well, I won't contradict you." The prince closed his eyes and hummed at the cigarette's smoke. "But about this no one can help. It is, it has been, and it will always how court is working. A theatre… No. That comparison is by far more too unfair to theatre. At least actors' play is more convincing than the falseness whirling within those walls. Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtue in here."

"After Wilde, now quoting Dom Juan?" Shinya huffed. "It just shows how much you're more wicked than what I firstly believe."

"Right. What a terrible thing to be a great lord yet a wicked man."

"I didn't say you're a great lord either."

A rustle resounded from a nearby shrub. Maybe birds or squirrels. Shinya stared at it few seconds but then brought his attention back to the greyish cloud above his head. "The concept of aristocracy itself is obsolete, condemn to perish. How can they actually keep on thinking that people would eternally put them on pedestals and fear their names just because of some blood issues? That's so stupid."

Kougami was talking indifferently. Apparently the subject wasn't interesting him more than that. "Damn. Isn't that goddamn party over yet?" 'I want to go to sleep' He wanted to say, but avoided to. He didn't want that weird guy to suggest him anything creepy again…

"Still two or three hours to go. Inspector Kougami," Shogo unexpectedly raised from his seat and slowly walked to the other side of the garden. It somewhat startled the dark haired man: it was the first time Makishima was speaking to him in such a formal way. And more importantly there was that absent glance the white haired man was casting to some lost point in the dark. He hadn't seen it since the day they met. "Have you ever seen a kill? Not yet? That surprises me, I thought in the army… Anyway I was five years old when my father showed me one of them. It was a summer day, I can easily recall it. We were in the castle's woods. It smelled of… pine and grass. The trees' leaves were wet from the previous day's storm, droplets still were falling on my forehead from time to time."

While talking, Makishima wandered imperturbably near the groves where there have been the rustling. He absentmindedly grasped at a branch. "We would often have a ride together back then. That day only had been different. Soldiers had caught a burglar and brought him to the Emperor. The man had stolen a necklace and tried to run away, in vain. What a pitiful form, I said to myself, that grown up man kneeling, crying, begging for mercy. And then the Emperor said something that disturbed me. He said: 'Death is the same thing as pardon' "

What happened next, Kougami kind of predicted it. Well, that was mainly why he had been hired: things like a suicidal fanatic jumping out from nowhere and trying to stab the prince with a knife, like now. In point of fact there were two aggressors: the first one, Kougami easily succeeded in pinning him on the ground; the second appeared right after the first one. The second intruder, seeing that his friend was already busying the dark haired man, tried to attack the prince. What he didn't see coming was the said man, as he tried to stab him, violently twisting his wrist and immobilizing with a simple choke. A kick from the white haired man broke the trapped one's leg. He fell on his knees.

"Hey, hey, hey." Shinya grinned viciously at the first aggressor. "Isn't your plan a bit botched up, bro? Now, answer: who send you here…"

However, it was difficult to keep them still: bulging eyes and out of breath, they both looked as if they were drugged. The first fanatic, with a roar, released himself by almost breaking the Inspector's chin above his head. He ran like a madman to Makishima. The latter, though, didn't flicker, not once. Breaking the second intruder's neck (he had to do it in a fraction of second), he quickly took his knife, slightly threw himself back and readied his arm to slit the other's throat open…

When a gunshot resonated. It was from Kougami's gun.

The first attacker fell on the ground, his thigh bleeding like hell, but still conscious.

"Bloody fanatics… Are you hurt anywhere?" The Inspector asked Shogo whilst walking to him. He didn't answer; his eyes couldn't detach themselves from the man bleeding at his feet.

"That was an odd feeling I got that day." The white haired man finally stated. "It was like a thrill, but also frightening, in the same way as they put the knife under my throat instead of the thief's, that a human life was about to be taken so easily."

As he said that he went down on his knees and lowered the sharp blade on the injured man's neck, ready to cut the carotid. If Kougami hadn't stopped him, the poor man would have ended either amputate or paralytic.

"You don't have to do that." Shinya fiercely withdrew the knife from Shogo's hand and grunted. "Geez, something must be really wrong in your head…"

Quickly, Kougami took care of the left dissident. Fortunately, some guards, surely alerted by the shot, came to reinforce the Inspector's side. Makishima, more sulking than frowning, got up and, with a wave of his hand, last one of the day, as to say good night, left the Inspector for his apartments.

* * *

Review please! It makes me want to write more!


	3. And Uneasy Lies The Mind

Hell~o there, people! I'm reeeeally I finally finished this chapter. I don't know why I have so much trouble writing about this pairing... Really really tired... and hungry, too. Anyway, enjoy, please! And leave some reviews, please...

* * *

Makishima Shogo waved a hand and quietly went back to the castle.

After he left, Kougami lit up another cigarette and turned his back to look at the royal guards arresting the two dissidents. More exactly, they were arresting the first one of them and putting the second's body in a corpse bag. The prisoner was resisting like a dammed soul, thrashing and trying to kick the half a dozen of watchmen who were struggling to keep him immobile. The party still was resonating from the palace, laughs and chattering on a _Canone alla terza_ background sound. They didn't need to witness such a trivial thing as a arrest.

A young woman dressed in a dark suit, with dark hair tied up in a pony-tail, was supervising the guards' work. Shinya walked to her.

"Kunizuka, did you learn anything from him?" He asked.

Kunizuka leaved through a notebook. "No. Nothing remarkable. Or at least, nothing the Public Safety Bureau can be interested in."

Shinya frowned and puffed a white smoke. "So back to square one."

"It isn't as if we had already left it. And you?" She cast him a limpid stare. "Did you get some useful information from the prince?"

Some useful information? From that man? The Inspector almost laughed out. "Nope. That man is an absolutely hopeless case. It would be a waste of time to stay with him anymore. I should come back to the first division for support, instead."

"Well, I have no authority in this." She closed the notebook and beckoned one of the guards to make his report: the only survivor hadn't said anything helpful, he hadn't given his name nor his friend's, even their aim was unclear. He only said something about 'a blaspheme to the Realm of P…', 'a marriage that only would bring misfortune on their country', 'killing the evil in his den'…

"And these men are clearly addicted to methamphetamines: dry mouth, dilated wards, blurred vision, anxiety and agitation… We'll carry out tests once at the headquarters. Nonetheless, we won't get coherent answers until he's totally severed, but it may take three of four days until…"

"Enough." Kunizuka raised a hand to make the private stop. The latter saluted and left right after a nod of the woman Inspector's head. "We're waiting for your report, Kougami. I assume you'll soon come back home. The division is already short-handed, we can't afford to have a single agent missing from their post. Inspector Ginoza is getting nervous about it."

Oh. Gino. Kougami could easily imagine him looking daggers at the entire division, with his stomach aching like no hell. That had never meant anything good for anyone. He had known Gino for too long to understand that. However, Kunizuka was right. Those incessant terrorist raids had become more and more bothersome, and until now the Public Safety bureau still was clueless about their origin. Their motivation was more or less simple – a violent hatred toward the Empire, and a pure aversion for the alliance concluded between the two countries – the motivation was simple, but finding out the rebels' hideout and dismantling their organization was another issue.

They had the first division with its back against the wall. Since Gino's team was in charge of the affair, no wonder the bespectacled man was getting nervous. And it was in this context that they sent Kougami to act as the prince's bodyguard. That way the Bureau thought they would capture the rebels more quickly.

In the end, the white haired man was a bait and nothing more. And the irony of the situation was that the latter was utterly aware of his position.

However, that night's assailants weren't the insurgents they had been waiting for. Those were mere junkies. Questioning them would simply be a waste of time.

"Yeah. I'll do my best. Just tell Gino to drink some milk."

The woman Inspector saluted and turned heels.

* * *

Shogo was indeed aware of the fact that he was being used. It wasn't something he was proud of; it was inevitable.

So he was thinking while walking quietly to his bedroom. The corridor he was following wasn't inside the royal castle, it was a courtyard much more than anything. The place was bordered by high, white columns. Moonlight was slipping through the gaps, streaking the tiled floor with white and black. A very peaceful scenery. At the end of the corridor, a staircase, this time inside the castle, was leading to his apartment.

The white haired man was occupying the entire left wing. Apart from the servants who would clean the area from time to time, no one would come in that place. It's wrong to think that people weren't allowed to, the correct reason would be Makishima's idiosyncrasy. There was indeed something particular with the white haired man, something that would make people enticed, and in the same time afraid of him, thus instinctively rejecting him.

Makishima Shogo was the kind of person who can easily lure the common beings' attention to him, attract their sympathy or induce them to accomplish the stupidest things just in order to impress him. Just like insects attracted to the light, those are creatures attracted to the sun… But just like when you're looking at the sun, first you're marveled, still the enchantment won't last for long. Soon, it will burn your eyes; they're turning red, growing painful and getting blind.

People are afraid of the sun. They're afraid of the light.

Most of time, noblemen's antechamber are full of courtesans, of opportunists and animals of the same kind. In Shogo's case, his hall was constantly void of people. Not as if it bothered him, actually. His mornings were cracked up with hypocrisy and lies, at least his nights would be filled up with sincerity, may loneliness be the price of it.

However, at long last, loneliness can become truly heavy on one's shoulders. Therefore he was looking for amusement, for some way to reduce the boredom that would always numb his brain cells every time he was alone at night. No, he wasn't the lonely type, nor the type to look constantly for some company. Nevertheless, at the moment, he was feeling a little annoyed. The day began really tiresomely, the middle of the day and the evening hadn't been better, the party was just the icing of that exhausting misery. But this, he was used to.

What bothered him the most was that when he finally found a way to relieve himself from the deadly tedium, when he got some time to talk with the dark haired Inspector, they were rudely disturbed by those intruders. That was a shame. Besides, he didn't see the point for Shinya to lose his time in that never ending interrogating. So useless, when instead they could do anything worthier…

He reached his bedroom. It was a huge and luxurious room. The floor was covered by thick carpets and the windows by damask curtains. On the walls, a collection of valuable paintings, with one Makishima liked more than the others. It was a representation of a very beautiful, yet sad, landscape: a winter seashore. The sea was dull grey, almost motionless, except for foaming waves miles away at the horizon. One could spot dark cliffs which were slightly darkening the skyline. The sky was grey, too, because of the stormy clouds that were obscuring it. Only a feeble moon ray could be seen filtering from behind the mist. Not a single boat on the sea, not a single seagull in the sky. It was all monotone and depressing. The shore as well was: some beige-greyish sand where seaweed would settle, from time to time, because of the high tide.

The painting wasn't signed, but Shogo would have liked it to meet its creator. That unique piece of furniture was, in point of fact, the only one he did appreciate in that too spacious room.

After half unfastening his tie, he slumped on the canopy bed in the middle of the room, back against the silky sheets, with his right arm folded on his face, hiding it. A furtive smile stretched his lips.

"Am I getting too nervous?" He muttered. "It isn't like me."

He stayed like this, lying idly on his bed, for few hours unable to sleep. On a bedside table, under the weak light of a nightlight, there was a volume of the Gulliver's Travels, the same Kougami was reading the first time they met. He had already read that book million times before. It was a story written for children, despite the fact the contain could become quite twisted at certain moments. He could clearly recall a precise passage of the book, something he found quite strange the first time he read it, when he was still a kid:

"'_They had __a maxim that __in a company __it is good that __there is silence __from time __to time, __and I think they __were right. __In this interval __and during __this __kind of __truce__, the mind __is filled with __new ideas,__and __the conversation __then become __livelier __and more vivid_' "He recited dully, eyes glancing idly at the ceiling. "Does that still have any meaning now?"

Even if it did, did that change anything? He didn't even know why he picked that book again. Was it because he saw Kougami reading it in the library? A childish reaction. But the fact he did that was rather puzzling him. A weird situation for him, without a doubt, that for once he was the one being influenced and not the contrary.

Still at that instant, he was recalling the dark hair man's obsidian eyes focused on the book's lines, his spiky black locks, his pallid skin and well-built stature standing out in the crowd at the princess' arrival. He'd known the inspector only for few days, yet Shogo was considering him differently: he was the first one who could seriously arouse his curiosity. Maybe that was in his way of thinking which, oddly, was easily following his, in his unwavering stare, or simply the straightforwardness he had when he was with the white haired man… all those little details that made the prince feel at ease near him.

"Ah, but he isn't here." Surely still taking care of some paperwork.

Uncertainty was slowly filling the white haired man's head. He'd been alone for so long that the mere sensation of wanting to be with someone else for the first time in his life was making him hesitant. That mix of necessity and joy was making him hesitant. However that was exactly what he wanted at the moment. He was at least perfectly aware of that fact.

That feeling was gradually warming up his chest. He carefully averted his eyes from Swift's book not to have to face his own discomfort.

At the very last, his eyelids started to feel heavy. He fell asleep.

…

The next day, his doubts still were lingering in his mind. Shogo didn't want to see that pathetic crowd anymore, he didn't want to attend some futile parties nor act as if he was pleased to hear the usual praying and wishes of happiness for him and his 'family'. That meant nothing, that was coming to nothing.

Even Kougami noticed the unusual quietness of the white haired prince. Makishima was totally lost in his thoughts. At first, he found it very practical not to have him voice every little complaint about his agenda, annoy him with his twisted concepts of life – of which he was, in point of fact, really thankful; and mostly not to have to nearly drag him out of his bathroom.

On the other hand, the days were turning dreadfully tedious. Since the last attack, the security in the castle had been leveled up (something they should have done since long, Shinya remarked: maybe an excess of confidence, maybe pure unconsciousness, but when he first arrived in the palace, the security level was close to nil). The time spent outside had been reduced to half; moreover they wanted to give Makishima a complete escort, something the prince vehemently refused, as well as the Inspector: his aim was to lure the dissidents to Shogo, having a wall of guards around him wouldn't help the Inspector at all.

"A very judicious decision, Inspector Kougami Shinya." Makishima smiled at him from behind the half open door of his bedroom. "_Sur ce_."

He closed the door.

Yes, the days were monotonous, and to make things worse, it started to rain. A real storm. The weather was cold and windy, absolutely awful. The outings were completely cancelled. And so, Shogo was confined within the palace's walls all through days and nights. The library itself had become boring, it left the prince with nothing else to do aside from watching stupidly raindrops hitting the huge glass roof of the greenhouse he almost hadn't left for days. A splendid vegetation was surrounding him: trees and flowers from all over the world, as magnificent and luxuriant as in a real jungle, climbing on the posts and the walls, blossoming wild and loutish.

Yet, it was just an imitation, a satire. Everything surrounding him was always lifeless fake.

Shogo was lying on a lounger and, exactly like that night after the assault, he was watching lazily at the transparent roof. The only difference was that, contrary to that night, he was holding the Gulliver's Travel in his hands, both resting on his stomach. What he saw above him was only dull clouds, rain and torn off leaves. From time to time, a flash of lightning would enlighten the clouds, the rapid glow almost already followed by a grumble.

"We should leave this place. The storm is getting closer." Kougami's voice raised.

"Yes… that's right." Shogo replied, his golden orbs fastened on the cloudy sky.

"It'll become dangerous to stay here. The glass may break."

"Yes… that's right."

"Did you hear anything I said?"

"Yes…"

The conversation was getting annoying for the dark haired Inspector. He was okay for Makishima not talking to him, he was okay for him brooding silently in his corner, but only when the white haired man complied to what he said. Now, the situation was more like talking to a living puppet which would always repeat the same sentence, like a scratched disc. And why was he brooding like that anyway? Was he angry about something? Shouldn't be Kougami the angry one? He was stuck with someone he couldn't bring himself to like the slightest in the world, when his division had to deal with the rebels' attacks almost on a daily basis.

"Hey, Makishima. What's bothering you this much?"

The prince's eyes widened in surprise. He turned to look at Shinya: the Inspector was standing few meters from him, a put out cigarette between his lips. He was frowning; two small wrinkles streaking the space between his eyebrows, like every time the raven was truly upset about something. That was actually the first time Kougami asked him something this personal. Well, that wasn't _that_ personal, but, at any rate, Shogo was glad the Inspector was showing him some concern, concern that had nothing to do with work or good forms. He smiled unconsciously, unsure of how long that attention would last.

"I'm fine, Inspector Kougami. I was only listening to it."

"To what?"

"Can't you hear it? It's the storm. This is practically the only living thing in this eternally motionless and odorless world. Something no one will ever be able to trap in an aseptic bottle like those false trees. A exquisite, wonderful event. Even the destruction it brings is beautiful, I only gives back the natural shape of matters and people. A simple, artless, savage melody: the sound of the wind that breaks down the artificial forms, upturning the vessels in the sea, razing mountains to the ground, all together with the thunder. The roar, the deafening cry of thunder which collapses on the arid soil, burning down hundred-year-old trees, and, at last, the salvation rain which will lightly wipe away the charred rubble of the civilization and scorch the skin until there's nothing left anymore but our bones…" Everything, anything but the deafening, mind-numbing silence and its cadaverous fixity."Isn't that a lovely vision?"

Shinya said nothing. They were both staring at each other, the wind whipping against the glass as their only watcher. Seeing that the dark haired man wasn't willing for a conversation, Shogo sighed lightly and got up. '_Ah. If thou let go of me now_…' He recited in his mind.

"I'm going out. Can you ask for a car, please?"

Kougami looked at him, incredulous. "Going out? With that storm outside? Are you going insane?"

"I'm happy you seem to worry about my mental sanity." Shogo smirked while walking to the castle's main entrance. "Feel free to follow me if you want. Anyway, I'll bring Ooryou with me."

When they reached the entrance and walked down the landing's stairs, a coach was already waiting for them. Fortunately for the prince, with the wind blowing in his ears, he could only hear one out of two words Kougami was yelling at him. At last, the Inspector had to get in the car, at least in order to have the satisfaction to shout to his heart's content at Makishima's nonsense.

They took place on the leather benches, both men sitting face to face.

"… And tell me what kind of bloody idiot would go out with a damn tempest above their head?"

The white haired man didn't look at the dark hair one when he impassively replied. "A tempest… That's right. '_We are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep'_ "

His eyes were closed when he finished his sentence, his head resting on his hand, as if he was remembering a nice memory. Seeing him like this was exasperating Shinya. "Have you already read this one?" That question, Makishima had directed it to a young girl who had been sitting next to Kougami during the whole argument. She was the same girl who gave him the chocolate box, days earlier. Her long and dark hair waved when she laughed silently at Shogo's inquiring.

"Oh, please. I have a profound respect in Shakespeare and his work, and that's precisely why I don't quite understand this story. After all, it must have been some sort of pastime for an old man near his retirement."

"An old man's pastime?" Kougami's eyebrow raised. "A kind-hearted father who, beyond his wish for revenge, chose the happiness of his daughter instead of bloodbath and cannibalism... What's so incomprehensible in that?"

Shinya asked this question rather emotionlessly. He really wasn't in the mood for talking and debating about literacy. Ooryou nodded

"This is a defendable theory. But I'm sure our driver is getting impatient. Look, it started to rain. Coachman" She called through the spyhole behind her head. "At the Hotel, my friend."

The hotel? What was that garbage again? Some kind of joke? Kougami cursed in his inner self. He really wanted a smoke, but gave up. Let it go, he thought to himself. It didn't take much time for him to understand what the Hotel was.

* * *

Yeah... i'm done...

Gosh I love Sakurai Takahiro's voice so much... But i have that strange feeling that, lately, every white haired chara he's the seiyuu of ends up... dead... T.T


	4. I'll say good night till it be tomorrow

I'm sooo sleepy. And i wnat to go to the toilet, too. But the toilet at my workplace is so faaar awaaay. Che. I'll wait until i reach home.

i know I don't update this story as often as i should. BUt, actually, this IS as often as i can. And yesterday, while i was reading a Koumaki doujin , i was thinking: God I have to write more fics about those two. God GIVE ME TIME to write more fics about those two.

Well, this is only a bit of PMS-ing. i hope you'll like this chapter! Explanation will come soon... ASAP, i hope (_ _)

* * *

It didn't take much time for Kougami Shinya to understand what the Hotel was.

A flood was pouring out on the town. Apart from some unconscious, the streets were totally void of people. The carriage they were traveling in was a simple, black coach, nothing that would give away the identity of its royal passenger. The travel had been long and boring with Shogo still walled up in his mutism and the girl Ooryou drawing silently in a sketchbook she had brought with her. Of the drawing, all the dark haired Inspector could take a glimpse of was something looking like a human body, but horribly disjointed and twisted.

One hour later, they arrived. Rain still was still falling violently, but it hadn't been a real problem since doormen, right at the moment they saw the coach coming, came closer to welcome its inhabitants with open umbrellas at their hands. One step outside, Shinya glanced at the Hotel.

Oh, there had been many of those, in the past. Place of oblivion, of rest and regrets, opium dens were blossoming almost everywhere in the peopled cities, spreading their sweetish tentacles from the lowest castes to the highest, seductively, pitilessly. They would open their arms wide for the one who was tired of everything – tired of a life filled with broken dreams, with ominous lies and illness; but only to fill them with more, like a promise of redemption. Of course, they would give only illusions and fantasy, but what a vivid and delectable trickery! And as the usual customer was lying, sedated and daydreaming on his couch, his pupils narrow and his heartbeat dangerously slow, then he would recall in a strange state of content his dearest memories – memories of a lost love, of children dead on the battlefield, of parents now feeling only disappointment in them…

But I'm wandering from the subject.

This den was different. It had nothing to do with the usual ones. In this one, you won't see dozens of skeletal druggies piled up in foggy rooms, with the nauseating scent of sweat and vomit filling the entire place. No, the outside was indeed misleading: a huge building, common and muddy, one like many in the popular area. Yet, this one gave the impression it had been built specially to welcome upper classmen, from the old and idle nobleman to the go-getter bourgeois, and in the same vein, why not, a prince.

Makishima was the first at the door, which was immediately opened up at the royal sight. Next was Ooryou. Kougami, on the contrary, stayed glued before the building, unsure on whether he should followed the white haired man in or not, and asking himself if going in a place like that wasn't literally jumping in the lion's mouth. Anyway, since that was more or less what he wanted, he came in, bringing up the rear.

The hotel's inside was much less sordid than the outside: ground covered with luxurious carpets, walls overlaid with curtains of silk and jade and emerald. In the hallway, glass was serving as a ceiling, and at every corner ) the Inspector would catch sight of the finest chinas (immense vases decorated with cobalt blue, figurines and other crockeries) he had ever laid his eyes on, and servants in bright liveries ready to go through fire and water for their patrons…

That was simply and surely the ostentation and extravagance exaggerated to the point of absurdity. Something Shinya knew wasn't in the white haired man's taste at all. The latter, nevertheless, crossed the entrance hall and climbed slowly at an immense staircase leading to the first floor. Shinya and Rikako followed him. There, two smiling servants were waiting for the prince, showing him a door opening to a huge chamber room. Shogo rushed in.

"Enjoy yourself." The servants chimed and bowed as Makishima went past them. But when the Inspector came near them, their faces darkened. "This room is for the Prince's use only. In this Hotel, every customer has their own personal rooms, where no one but them is allowed, and you're not allowed in the Prince's."

"It's no use, Inspector Kougami." Ooryou stated casually. "They never let anyone but him in there. Besides, they aren't used to have the police within those walls."

"We ask your pardon, Miss Rikako." The servants bowed. "May we lead you and your friend to the waiting room instead?"

Kougami smiled rather furiously, but finally followed one of the domestic and the young girl to another room. It was decorated with the same manner as the entrance: all of Asiatic extravagance. The dark haired man went in and sat down on an armchair near the door. Ooryou Rikako took a seat at the opposite side of the waiting room, right next to a giant picture window. Suddenly, a flash of lightning set the night sky on fire, for a millisecond bathing the room in a white and overabundant glow. None of the visitors seemed to notice it. Then came the thunder, a loud and terrifying thunder, as if the lightning fell only few kilometers away. Same reaction from both the Inspector and the long haired girl.

"So, we have to wait here…" Kougami finally said with a sigh. Rikako laughed lightly, one hand hiding her mouth. In a very lady-like manner, Shinya couldn't help but ponder.

"Aren't you quite mean with Mr. Makishima? I know you didn't want to be his bodyguard, but you should at least show some indulgence."

"I think I've shown enough indulgence until now. If I'm right, you said you're something like… a crown ward? And also that you're allowed in the royal family's surroundings in order to make painting of them in their daily activities. It's surprising me, how you could put up with Makishima's whims thus far."

On a second thought, after seeing her drawings, he somehow understood how.

"My," Ooryou resumed her sketch. Her eyes were oddly void of any kind of emotions as she did so. "An unusual trait, a singular distinction and the harmony of all of it, this is everything what I'm looking for. And I have to admit, this family never disappointed me on that point. Humanity, rake, misjudgment and pretence… their whole beings are overflowing with them. It's like they're screaming '_draw me, draw me'_ … And mechanically my hands are already drawing what my mind perceives and what my eyes can't see. The result, you must have seen it, is a cacophonous and savage sketch. Then comes the time when I have to find the link between the rough draft and the original model. When I come to this, all I need to find are the similarities between the two entities. I pretty like what results from all of that in the end." Rikako raised her head and smiled politely at Kougami. "Oh, again, this is only a question of point of view, that is to say it's _my_ point of view. But what about you, Inspector? You're not here because someone is making an attempt at the prince's life, am I wrong? It would be just too generous of you."

Shinya looked at Ooryou, saying nothing. The silence didn't embarrass the young girl. Picking up a new sheet, she began another sketch. "Yes, what about you, Mr. Kougami… From my point of view, right now, you're the one who shares the most similarities with Mr. Makishima."

"Is that true?" Shinya laughed bitterly. "I don't know if I should take that positively or not. Why are you saying that?"

"Mmh… Who knows… My instinct of painter, maybe?"

Kougami Shinya raised an eyebrow, dubious. With no doubt, that Makishima guy perfectly succeeded in surrounding himself with the weirdest chaps. That was maybe one of the reasons why he wanted to close this case the fastest possible.

The rain didn't stop. Kougami watched outside, by the window. The night was a deep, dark blue. Even a cat wouldn't find her kittens in that flood. What time was it? The Inspector raised his right wrist and looked at his watch. 11.23 pm. He grunted. What was he doing in an opium den, really? He, an agent of the Secret Services?

"Damn you, Makishima." He muttered before crossing his arms, throwing his head backwards. "How long do you plan on staying here?"

…

"How long will I be staying here?" Shogo asked quietly.

He was lying on a sofa, in the middle of a vast room where there was nobody but him. Him and another male, an Asiatic one, sitting right next to him, actually, the Hotel's landlord. The man was tall and looked friendly, at first sight. He was puffing quietly at an ivory pipe, his gaze whether watching at the white puff he was exhaling from time to time, whether lying on Makishima's still form. The white haired man was resting on his side, his back to his entertainer, one arm hanging loosely at the edge of the couch whist the other one was folded under his head.

"How long, you ask," the Asiatic man smiled. As he did so, his slit eyes opened a little, showing two bright and red orbs gleaming strangely in the night. "You can stay here as long as you want, my prince. But I recommend you not to leave this place before the storm is over."

"This sounds reasonable."

"But you look a bit tired… Or upset? Is something bothering you?"

"Nothing particularly. Am I not allowed to come and see a friend to have a talk with him, for no particular reason?"

"Well, you've been sitting here for twenty minutes without saying anything. I was worried something might have happened to you. Moreover, coming here with this flood going out outside…" The man's grin widened. "Whether something has _actually_ happened to you, whether you couldn't wait anymore to see me."

Makishima glanced coldly at him behind his shoulder. Choe Gu-sung shrugged and resumed his smoking. "But how rare to see you in a state like this. I'm flattered you're calling me your friend, but I must confess I'm still a total stranger to your deepest reflections. Your thoughts, torments and worry are complete secrets for me. I'm just so unaware of them it's almost heartbreaking."

Choe spoke with a relatively indifferent tone, even happy. Yet the prince could sense a vague shade of sadness in it.

Makishima gazed at the semi-darkness of the chamber. His golden eyes were half closed. They looked like they were searching for something especially, but he himself couldn't say what. The Asian man somehow sympathized with the white haired man's distress. No… distress wasn't the best word to describe that state of mind. Choe Gu-sung didn't even believe Makishima could some day clearly grasp the signification of a word such as '_distress'_… Or perhaps he did already know it; this error would only prove his previous statement.

Distress… Annoyance… Sadness… None of them was good. The taller man bent over the couch, his tall frame completely dominating the resting white haired one.

"Say, Mr. Makishima." He asked, his voice rather serious in spite of the eternal grin on his lips. "What are you watching right now? What are you looking for in the darkness? You're just like a kid looking for a treasure impossible to get. Your eyes tell me so. But here, you won't find it. Here, everything you can have is oblivion, comfort and maybe, at the very end of all this, madness. If you're actually searching for something, I'm afraid this isn't the best place you should start with."

"You're quite talkative today." The prince smirked. "Well, you've always been like that."

"Forgive me my casualness. When I look at you, I just can't help but feel sorry for you."

"Oh, is that pity?"

"Far be it from me to say that."

"Choe, am I that pitiful? Maybe I should be thankful to your compassion, yet in the same time, it's not kind like it..."

Choe sat back in his armchair and heaved a sigh.

"My prince, what you feel is anger. Or something akin to it. A new element has intruded itself in your existence, interfering with it, and on which you have no control. As a consequence it makes you feel uneasy and disconcerted. What I'm curious to know is what could have hurt you so much for you to be angry."

"Isn't that your condescension."

"Before that, my prince, before that." Choe Gu-sung chuckled. "Ah, but look outside. The rain has stopped. You can already see the stars shining bright. This is a lovely sight, isn't it?"

"The rain has stopped…" Shogo echoed, staring blankly at the skylight. "What's the point of this? It will come back soon, inexorably. After the rain will come a blue sky, a cloudy sky and then again the rain. Today and tomorrow's weather are bound to be the same, as always. This incurable convalescence."

"My, my. I'm wounded. Do you mean you're feeling bored when you're with me?"

Makishima didn't answer. He didn't have to as a knock cut the two males' discussion.

"Sir," A soft voice – a domestic's voice – raised behind the door. "I'm sorry to disturb you, but the prince's escort…"

"I'll talk to him personally." Kougami pulled the servant back and stepped in the chamber. He didn't look annoyed as his usual, more like someone resigned to bear their fate to the very end. His high stature was standing out on the doorstep, even more with the light coming from the corridor behind his back, for an instant illuminating the half-dark room. "Makishima, it's late. We're leaving. Now."

The white haired man raised from his couch and looked intently at the dark haired one. For one second, his eyes widened a little, as if he just understood something very important, or as if the last piece of a complex puzzle just fell in his hands. This change in his appearance didn't remain unknown to the Asian man.

'So this is what's going on.' He thought with a smile. Then, aloud, "I'm sorry I kept the prince for myself for so long. Mr. …?"

"Kougami Shinya, Inspector at the SSs and until further instruction, Makishima Shogo's bodyguard." Kougami replied mechanically while showing his badge. "Hey, we'd better go now. Ooryou is already waiting in the coach."

Silently, Shogo got in his feet and left the room.

"Good night, good night, my prince," Choe Gu-sung waved at Makishima. "And you too, Inspector."

As an unique reply, Kougami slightly bowed down and closed the door.

Once more, the chamber was dark and silent. Once more, Choe chuckled.

"My dear prince, parting is such sweet sorrow." He took another puff from his pipe. "Still I hope this night will be agreeable for you."

* * *

"Is this all?" Makishima questioned Shinya once they arrived in front of his bedroom's door, one hand at the doorknob.

The inward journey had been fast and quiet, even more than the outward journey. The dull sound of the pencil lead scratching on the paper and the stamping of the horses were the only things filling the sound of silence. Shogo didn't once raise his voice before that unique question.

"Mmh? Isn't that something _I_ should ask?" Shinya shrugged.

"Is that so…" The white haired man looked down. Weird, the Inspector considered. He wasn't the kind of man who would avert his eyes, no matter what may occur to him.

As a matter of fact, the prince was lost in his thoughts. At his side, that painting with the grey sky, the grey sea, the heavy clouds and the dark seagulls. In front of him, that man, Kougami Shinya. Was he angry? That feeling, that was more or less comparable to anger, Choe was right. But not only. It wasn't that simple. And also, that time, back at the Hotel, when he saw Shinya standing at the door of his room, with his dark spiky hair contrasting with the bright light behind his wide back, his deep blue gaze a patient and calm one… When he heard the Inspector's slightly rough voice calling his name, at that precise moment, he indeed realized something: that what he felt was happiness.

He was happy Shinya came to look for him, he was happy Shinya said his name, he was happy Shinya had been there, always there, next to him, even if it had been only for few days.

Makishima wasn't the lonely type. This doesn't mean he's never felt lonely. This only implies he had since long learnt to accept the loneliness and the sensation of separation from others as part of his own life. You can, at any time, retire within yourself. No retreat is more peaceful or less troubled for a man than what he finds in his soul. Shogo always believed so. Still, once said man learns to like and converse with his fellow creatures, it becomes more difficult. An equal and not a just courtier, someone in front of who he could see his own limits and defaults.

Shogo wasn't used experiencing this sort of feeling, and yes, it was making him uneasy.

"So… Goodnight." Kougami stated, ready to leave.

"Yes, goodnight…"

And in a totally unforeseen manner, Makishima closed the distance between them and brushed his lips the dark haired Inspector's, his eyes closed. The latter's eyes widened in surprise, yet he didn't pulled back, only waiting for Shogo to end the kiss.

Ah, Makihima pondered. That tobacco scent. That was definitely Kougami's scent.

"What was that for?" Shinya finally inquired.

The prince opened his eyes. This close, the Inspector saw them glowing even more brightly than before, golden and dazzling.

"A goodnight kiss." Makishima sneered. "Didn't you like it?"

"This is a little too much for a goodnight."

"Do you think so?..." Shogo came closer again, this time his pallid hand on Kougami's. "I think it isn't enough, though."

He kissed the Inspector again. Like the first time, Kougami did nothing to stop him; and in the same time he was showing no express hint of consent. For Shogo, it was way sufficient for him to keep on.

Makishima was licking and biting at Kougami's lower lip, asking for entrance. By now, he had both his hands resting on the dark haired man's arms and, slowly, he was trying to push the other man back against the wall. Shinya couldn't deny the white haired man knew exactly what to do in this kind of situation. His gestures weren't hasty nor awkward. Slow, seductive, and skilled, but never hasty and awkward. Shogo tilted his head and moaned as their tongues intertwined. The Inspector was fairly astounded to hear such a sound from that man. Even the feeling of a bulge rubbing against his thigh wasn't as odd as that. In spite of everything, Makishima was a man, too.

"Mmh… ngh…" The white haired man's groans were growing louder. Fortunately, no one apart from their owner – and from time to time domestics – would come in Shogo's apartments. They didn't risk getting caught making out in front of the door to the prince's bedroom. _This_ would be difficult to explain. And yet, making out in a corridor wasn't particularly attractive in the dark haired man's mind.

"Hey… Hey, Makishima." He pulled back from the white haired man's passionate embrace. "In the bedroom…"

Makishima looked at him in the eyes and smirked. Then, parting from the Inspector, he pushed the door open and entered in, beckoning the dark haired man to follow him.

* * *

TBC

Please leave some review! Reviews make me want to write more. When i don't see any in my mail box, i'm just so T.T


	5. What hath night to do with sleep?

Hi, people... OKay i really dont know if anyone is still following this story. And i really deserve it. OMG its been almost a year since the last update! I should make seppuku. Seppuku-ing this fat belly wouldn't be a bad idea too. And the fat thighes. And everything that reminds me of fat in my body in general. I'm so fat and i hate myself and i wanna kill myself but i'm too in love with myself to do that

Anyway this chap... It's shorter than the previous ones, and i SURE got updated super late. But i DO have an excuse for that. For the 4 first chaps i was just like "Aaaa i like makishima. i miss makishima so imma gonna write a new koumaki story." No plot. Nothing. It was just a stupid fangirl writing an aimless story. That was me one year ago.

But NOW there is a plot, there is a goal and if i dont kill myself till then (very unlikely), i WILL reach it. But the price is pain &amp; depression &amp; alota delusion, though.

Enjoy the fruit of my broken heart plz (_ _) And plz forgive the mistakes in this chap and he 4 others. I'm gonna take care of them soon, but RL is a bitch and ppl always give me work to do T_T

* * *

Makishima beckoned the dark haired man to follow him in his room. Shinya complied unceremoniously, came in the silent bedroom and closed the door behind him. The white haired man thanked him with more passionate kisses, with both hands locking behind Shinya's neck. He slowly pushed him toward the bed, their tongues never untying, until the dark haired man's leg bumped against the mattress. They finally broke their embrace as Shogo pushed him down then straddled him on the hips. He stared and Kougami with his bright, amber orbs. His slender shoulders were heaving up and down, fast, as if he just ran a marathon. Outside, the rain calmed down a little, but from time to time a distant thunder could be heard disturbing the lulling of the drizzle.

"What are you thinking about, right now?" Shogo asked out of the blue. "What do you think of me?"

"You're a capricious, annoying and twisted brat, unable to do even the simplest things. A pain to take care of. This is what you wanted to hear?"

"From you, I take this as a compliment." Shogo smiled and took Shinya's face in his hand, the extraordinary, shiny irises piercing the Inspector's soul like two blazing blades. "Unlike all those people who are surrounding me, you're the only one that has always given me sincere moments of truth. I respect and I thank you for that. Now tell me…" Makishima reached down the Inspector's jacket and started unbuttoning it, then the shirt. "How do you value this capricious, annoying and twisted prince's life? Put aside moral, theological theories and long implanted social principles. When you look at me, just as a single person, what do you see? Is my life as worthy as any other's?"

"And you?" Kougami replied half amused, half serious, while looking intently at the man on top of him. "You talked about that thief and how you saw your father coldly murdered him before your very eyes. Don't you think that that man's life also had some value? I'm not a good judge of human kind, but your indifference toward people's life and death is way beyond scary."

"Not quite indifference." Makishima said while lapping Kougami's throat, his cold hands feeling freely the latter's abs and torso, making the man beneath him twitch. "It's only that I have no sympathy for those who betray their own desires and deepest wish, only to breathe few more minutes. Mere cattle domesticated by the fear of a punishment. Everyone in this castle is: they breathe, they eat and they sleep, but they don't live. All I see is an inexhaustible number of marionettes ready to give up on their beliefs and their morality only to please other marionettes, all dancing under the invisible glance of some unknown puppeteer, unable to see the void under their feet. Just dancing, dancing like fools in a burning house. I've been surrounded by them all this time. Just how many times did I dream about destroying them all, to slay their chest open to see if there's still any sort of human heart inside."

"You're crazy."

"Yes. I am, maybe."

The white haired man began to rub himself against Kougami' crotch, eliciting a groan from the other male. This was bad, Kougami thought. He had let the white haired man come too close, just because of a moment of negligence. He shouldn't be doing that. Just why in the earth was he doing that? Perhaps because of the rain, or because he hadn't got laid in a while, or perhaps he only wanted to do it with that man… That last answer wasn't his favorite.

However, everything felt like it wasn't _that _simple. It was much stranger, as though the fact that both males ended up in a bed was the most natural event in the world. Slowly but surely, Shogo's aura of insanity was starting to infect him. Yet the dark haired man, in a useless attempt of manly show, tried to remain as composed as always. He grabbed Shogo at the haunch and forced him to stay still on his lap.

"There's quite a difference between human society and the ideal society. In order to survive here, we bend our thoughts to the mass' thoughts and assimilate the mass' behavior. Otherwise this world would just run to chaos." He said.

"But isn't chaos human being's real nature?" Shogo whispered seductively in Shinya's ear. "Social order at the expense of freedom is such a cheap bargain."

Shinya had to acknowledge one thing: Makishima's whispering voice was delectable. The Inspector instinctively reversed their positions; now he was topping the slender man, trapping him under his slightly bulkier body. Shogo just lay down, literally, staring back at the Inspector.

That man was getting him too engrossed, and Kougami didn't want to let himself being submerged by the pace Makishima had settled. He was in a serious need for cooling down, so he backed a little from the man beneath him. The sight he got as he did so – Makishima Shogo lying lazily on the sheets, his slim body willing and waiting for him – this sight, though, only tormented him more.

"I need a smoke." Kougami said before swiftly leaving the bedroom.

…

Outside, it was raining again, though it wasn't a stormy rain anymore, just a drizzle falling silently on the castle and the city, but enough to make the Inspector come back to his sense.

"For God's sake, what was I about to do?" He groaned while lighting a cigarette. He leaned against one of the columns of the pathway, thoughts clearer and less cloudy with every puff of smoke he was exhaling. His job was to protect that man, to gather information about a possible coup d'état… and then, two minutes earlier, he was about to sleep with him? What was wrong with him? Never once in his life did Kougami Shinya – the always so responsible, logical and level-headed Inspector Kougami Shinya – never once in his life did he feel that close to lose control of his mind.

Not before he met Makishima.

"No, never blame other people for your own weaknesses." Shinya recited under his breath. "Gentle to others but strict to yourself, huh…"

Yes, that's right. All he needed was to step back, see things in a different angle. When was the last time he had had sex? Well, maybe two or three months ago. And with Gino being Gino, it wasn't wrong to say that that situation still could last a little longer, until the cause of the bespectacled man's anger was forgotten and buried deep in the ground. The dark haired man had to grin and put up with it… Even if it wasn't going to be an easy task at all.

_When you look at me, just as a single person, what do you see? _The words were echoing in his head, anointed in their sultry temptation by Shogo's deep and playful voice.

What did he see, indeed? Some spoiled and idle prince whose fortune had made of him a cold and apathetic being? A madman, an aberrance, a lurking murderer who's hiding his carnal instincts behind a beautiful mask and persuasive words? Or just, as the white haired man said, a solitary man only seeking for the warmth of his equal.

He paused then frowned deeply. "What the hell is that. He's our bait. Nothing more, nothing less. I don't even know why I'm arguing on that point."

The rain slowly but surely became noisier. Now, water was drenching the edge of the corridor. It was truly dark in the garden; not a single soul, not a single light to show the way. A perfect night for an assassination, the Inspector thought.

After listening to the silently pouring rain and eyeing vainly in the dark, Kougami finally sighed. "Bullshit. I'm only getting paranoid. This is a job like any other. I'll just get this one finished and get over it. That's all."

That was supposed to be all, still… What? Why were his fingers trembling? What was making him nervous? May it be because of the awareness of what was waiting for him, only few meters away? That if he just turned back, climbed the stairs to the bedroom, and pushed that door (and it wouldn't take much time, ten or twenty seconds at most), he would have Shogo waiting for him, lying on that bed – pristine pallid skin unconcealed, angular body as thin and unblemished as what Kougami saw few days ago in that bathroom, then the snowy hair, then the scorching glaze, then the whispering voice – everything ready to accept him and give him the release he oh so needed…

A shiver went down the Inspector's spine at that thought.

This couldn't be right, Kougami pondered infuriatingly as he paced back and forth in the alleyway, throwing a butt before replacing it with another stick. He just had let that weirdo play with his nerves for too long. He would step back, that's all. The dark haired man had been through worst in his career, and he wasn't going to jeopardy all the work he did till that day only because he was lusting over one man.

"That's simply nonsense…" He grunted. "And we've still not discovered the background to this story yet…"

Anyway, step back and common sense. This was all Shinya needed at the moment. Only a teenage boy would have given away to that level of excitement. But for now, and this Shinya thought with a grimace, back to his job…

"Inspector Kougami Shinya," a male voice behind his back, startling him. Two guards in their noticeable uniform followed by three others were standing two meters from him, saluting the dark haired man. "The Bureau is calling for you. A car is waiting at the end of the alley. We're here for the take over."

"Oh. Fine."

The Inspector turned tails and let the alleyway as fast as if he had never been there at all.

…

'_As skillful as the Police may be, they have countless disadvantages. Firstly, they're forced to learn everything the conspirator knows, but moreover they also have to assume thousands possibilities before they can get to only one that is accurate. The conspirator constantly thinks about his safety, while the Police is awake only at times. Without the treasons, there would be nothing easier than conspiring._'

Those words were what Nobuchika Ginoza was recalling, alone in the office assigned to his division at the Police headquarter, emerald eyes gazing at the darkness behind the picture window, the trail of his thoughts punctuated by the sound of the raindrops hitting the panes. He was waiting for his division to come for their weekly reunion – though there still was a quarter of hour left before the appointment.

His files classed with a meticulous care and his desk completely tidy – a real embodiment of one of the Inspector's numerous manias – Gino had nothing else left to do apart from thinking. And thinking he sure did, for nearly two hours long, alone in the office.

His mind free from work's issues, it was personal issues' turn to haunt him. First, the old ones. Issues with his father, the grudge he would always hold against the old man for betraying him – him, his or what he thought his believes were – by leaguing against the very kingdom that had placed their faith in him. In fact, when people met him in the streets or in the corridors of the headquarters, no one could tell that that overly serious and reliable man, an Inspector of the Secret Servicesn was the son of a traitor, a man who had sold his masters for his personal interests.

And Ginoza knew nothing of it before Masaoka Tomomi got officiously arrested and incarcerated, far away from the public's eyes, far away from his son's shame. Maybe this was the reason why this conspiracy affair was that important for the bespectacled man. But, sincerely, this or another, it didn't make any difference for Gino as the man had the firm intention of putting a swift end to it.

Suddenly, he heard a knock behind the door. The door swung on its hinges, letting place for Kougami to come inside.

"Oh? Why is it so dark here?" He asked while feeling the wall next to the door. "Just switch the light on. You'll spoil your eyes, Gino."

"I like it like this." Nobuchika said.

'Ah, here's the second issue.' The bespectacled man thought with bitterness as Shinya shrugged and walked toward his place near the window before pausing before the taller Inspector, back leaning on a nearby desk.

Him, that man who seemed to take pleasure in always contradicting Ginoza, always doing as he liked, never minding Ginoza's feeling and instead acting as though everything had to be wrapped in his own way – always the wrong way, in Ginoza's point of view. Just who did the bastard think he was, casually intruding his life's darkest secrets, going as far as telling Gino to _forgive_ Masaoka? It had been a great fight between the two lovers, that day. And yes, it actually happened almost three months ago.

"You're early. How rare." Gino said and cast a sight at his watch. "I think no one will come here before ten minutes. You've prepared your report?"

"Yeah, I did." Kougami replied. He lit a cigarette. A very annoying habit, Gino couldn't help but note, however all over the years, he still got used to it. "I just handed it to Kunizuka. She's checking the last details of the meeting. How have things been going for you?"

A grunt immediately followed the Inspector's question, the kind of grunt that implied that Gino just reached a new level of annoyance. "Till now, nothing. Absolutely _nothing_. It's as if _they_ were completely aware of our movements and hiding right under our nose, taunting us. It would be a waste of time to try hunting them down since _they_ practically left no trace of their presence. I tell you, it's become a pretty ugly hide-and-seek game, here. All we can do is to wait for some progression on _your_ side. Otherwise, we're-"

Kougami raised a hand, his cigarette pressed between his fingers. "Why don't you ask _him_, then? It's not been that long since he got caught by the police. I'm sure we still can get some useful information from your father, at least it'd be better than what we have now…"

"Humph. So _you_ do believe you can succeed where so many divisions before us lamentably failed? Don't make me laugh. If that man-"

"Hey, hey, don't address your own father as 'that man'-"

"This has nothing to do with you!" Gino yelled, all of a sudden. So suddenly even Kougami didn't know how to react. "How many times will I have to tell you that?"

Hundred times. It was a vicious circle: a single word about Masaoka and it was the cold war, and when things started to lighten up, only a little, that word again, then everything was back at zero again. It was tiresome, Gino agreed on it, but for him, there was no way things could get better. Not in _that_ situation.

"Okay, I got it." Kougami surrendered, as he always did. "At any rate, it's going nowhere." The bespectacled man raised an eyebrow. What was Shinya talking about? What was going nowhere? That mission? Or something else… "It's dead calm in the castle, too. If something were to happen there, I'd be the first informed. But for now, nothing."

"Tsk. So that place is a dead end…"

"For now, I said."

"I see…"

That was a lie. Ginoza could honestly see nothing at all in that twisting of interests and ambition. To be more precise, the problem wasn't that they couldn't find any suspect in the dooming coup d'état: as a matter of fact, the list of suspects was so long that all they could do was waiting. Wait and watch…

"Wait and watch." Gino murmured, reminiscing teachings from long ago. "Wait for their first blunder."

"The most efficient way, huh?" Shinya smirked. "Not as if we could do anything else."

"Yeah…" Finally feeling the weight on his shoulders lifting, even if just a little, Gino sighed silently. At those moments only did the emerald eyes get their stunning deepness back. "So, how have you been lately? Your job isn't too tough for you?"

Kougami Shinya blinked with surprise, then chuckled. "Gino, we're really hitting a wall if even _you_ ask me for no reason how I'm doing."

Said man bit his lip. "I'm being polite, you ingrate bastard. Just forget what I said-"

"I'm fine! I'm fine." The dark haired man smiled at him. "Everything I do is following important people all the day. It's nothing compared to what you guys are doing here. And you? I'm sure you're overdoing it. You always do. Are you eating correctly? You look like you've lost some weight…"

"I'm okay. I'm not a kid." Gino frowned angrily, averting his gaze from his friend's stare, scrutinizing and embarrassing stare. "And don't you underestimate me. I can at least take care of myself even if you aren't around- Aa?" In the blink of an eye, Kougami was trapping him between his body and the wall, a hand on his wrist, another on Gino's waist. The latter couldn't help but gape at the obsidian orbs, so close to him. "Kougami?..."

"It's been so long." The other man just whispered in his ear, gradually closing the distance between them.

Gino knew that heat. He knew that want, that muted hurry in Kougami's moves, still a little bit hastier than usual. But he wasn't totally against it; not after three months of abstinence. Only… "Wait. The others will be here soon. When the meeting is over…"

"When the meeting is over." Kougami said carelessly, nose humming Gino's neck

"But don't you have to go back after?"

"The changing will wait a little longer than expected."

In normal times, Nobuchika would have scolded Shinya for saying this, but that night he was letting it go. "Then… Just wait for me… At my place."

The word was given. They reluctantly parted from each other, just in time before the rest of the division invaded the office.

TBC


End file.
